AS THE HANDS on the clock nudge closer to 11 p.m. Sunday, I feel my anxiety level rise.
What has been months in the planning is about to reach a dramatic conclusion.
But I am tired, exhausted really. And for the past hour or more, I have been fighting sleep. I want this all to end so I can go to bed.
Just another 30 minutes, I tell myself, and it will be done.
In the meantime, I need my 16-year-old son to get out of here.
“Caleb, stop reading and go to bed,” I strongly, emphatically, protectively suggest. “You have school tomorrow.”
He lifts his head, turns from the pages of his book to look at me.
“You hypocrite,” he accuses.
I can’t argue with that other than to say that I’m the mom and I don’t have school tomorrow and if I want to stay up late and finish reading a thrilling mystery, I can.
Before my boy heads off to bed, he leans in to hug me. “Where’s your book?” I ask, noting that his science fiction anthology, The Starry Rift, Tales of New Tomorrows edited by Jonathan Strahan, is not on the couch or anywhere in my view.
He smiles a lying grin. “It’s in my backpack,” he says, his smile growing bigger.
I know better.
But what can I say? I am a hypocrite.
Deadly Stillwater by Roger Stelljes
As he heads upstairs, I turn back to my book, Deadly Stillwater by Twin Cities writer Roger Stelljes. The police are hot on the trail of the kidnappers.
This story line is not calming me. I am, in fact, becoming more agitated with each flip of a page.
I close the book.
I need my sleep.
The police will just have to wait until morning to solve this crime. And they do, before noon.
Now it’s Tuesday morning, and my teen is hurrying downstairs for breakfast. I spy a book tucked in the crook of his arm.
“Were you reading last night?” I ask.
“Maybe,” he answers. At least he’s not flat out lying this time.
“Do you have those tests today?” I inquire, referring to the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests.
“Yeah, reading,” he says.
“Then you shouldn’t have stayed up late,” I admonish.
“I was practicing,” he shoots back.
© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Isn’t it amazing how a certain time comes at night you are just ready to be alone and do your thing. I hound my son all the time also to get to bed if he’s got a test or a baseball game or whatever the next day. I feel bad when our younger ones need to go to bed and our oldest is “hanging around” upstairs with no intention to settle in for the night. I love that he actually “wants” to spend time around us, and feel terrible sending him to the basement, but that is what is needed at a certain time of night.
Yes, these teenage years can be challenging sometimes.
Well said, Dawn.
They may not appreciate our parenting now. But some day they’ll understand. Right?
I have to admit that I wholeheartedly appreciate a boy who’d sneak a book up to his room. The love of reading can take one so far.
I too appreciate a boy who sneaks a book up to his room, but please don’t tell MY boy. A local bookstore owner even encouraged my son to read in bed years ago by giving him a small reading light to take under his bed covers.
Readers, check out Kristin’s candysandwich blog by clicking on her link in my blogroll. Kristin is involved in a literacy program in Washington, D.C. I think that’s fantastic. The ability to read, and enjoy reading, translates to success in so many facets of life.